Durham District Attorney Satana Deberry has been clear for years that she believes a woman has the right to make decisions about her own body.
She has posted on social media about it and joined elected prosecutors across the country in a statement when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, vowing not to use “limited criminal legal resources to criminalize personal medical decisions.”
“Criminalizing personal health care decisions around abortion creates untenable choices for women—particularly those experiencing sexual assault and domestic violence—and undermines trust and fairness in our criminal legal system,” Deberry tweeted a month before the landmark 5-4 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which turned decisions about abortion back to the states.
So it was perhaps unsurprising when Deberry dismissed charges filed this summer against two Durham teens after the pregnant mother allegedly took abortion pills sometime close to 31 weeks of gestation and gave birth to a baby just under 5.5 pounds on a toilet. About a week later, Durham police charged 18-year-old Syeisha Johnson with assault; she and her 19-year-old boyfriend Elijah Speight also faced child abuse charges.
What some in the legal profession found puzzling was that the charges were brought at all—especially in Durham, a politically progressive city with Deberry as top prosecutor.
The Durham case is the first of its kind in North Carolina since the Republican-led legislature restricted access to most abortions after 12 weeks in 2023, said Susanna Birdsong, general counsel at Planned Parenthood South Atlantic.
It started with a call to emergency dispatchers.
Johnson found out at a doctor’s appointment in June, the same month she turned 18, that she was 20 weeks pregnant, according to Durham police reports and warrants. She allegedly ordered pills from Virginia to induce an abortion, according to warrants.
The exact timeline of events is not clear in public documents, and efforts to reach the district attorney, Durham police, and the attorneys who represented Johnson and Speight have been unsuccessful.
In an application for a warrant, Durham detective M.S. Supernaw alleges that Johnson began taking the pills several days before giving birth. On July 28, the detective wrote, Johnson began having abdominal pain and cramps, which had not subsided by the next day. “She sat on the toilet and gave birth to a child,” Supernaw wrote. “The child was left in the toilet.”
At least one call to 911 was made, by Speight, according to court documents. The fire department was the first to arrive, and medics initiated cardiopulmonary resuscitation. When police arrived, the child had a pulse.
Johnson and the newborn were transported to Duke Hospital. Child Protective Services quickly launched an investigation.
The same day, the Durham detective went to the hospital with a search warrant, seeking any phones or computer tablets. He also sought a warrant that day to search the Johnsons’ bathroom, saying “probable DNA from within could show the manner and conditions in which the incident took place.”
Four days later, Durham police issued arrest warrants for Johnson and Speight. They were jailed on felony charges, and media picked up the story with headlines like “North Carolina Teen Parents Charged After 18-Year-Old Allegedly Took Abortion Pills While 31 Weeks Pregnant,” “Legal Battle Over Abortion Pills in Durham After Baby Found in Toilet.”
“There’s a lot that we don’t know about the specifics of this case, but what we do know is that someone is being criminally charged for pregnancy outcomes,” Jillian Riley, director of public affairs at Planned Parenthood South Atlantic, said at the time. “We shouldn’t be using the criminal justice system to address situations like this. Anyone who is pregnant should be able to get the help and support they need rather than be thrown in jail.”
In addition to restricting most abortions to the first trimester, North Carolina law requires anyone under 18 to get parental consent or a judicial waiver.
And while medication abortions are permitted, providers are required to examine the patient in person and provide counseling, then wait 72 hours before another in-person or telehealth visit to administer the pills. The widespread rollback of abortion rights, however, has led to increased online sales of these medications.
This method has become the most common way to terminate a pregnancy since the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved mifepristone in 2000. In 2023, 61% of abortions in North Carolina were done using medication, per KFF data.
The protocol typically requires two drugs: mifepristone, which blocks the hormone required to sustain a pregnancy, and misoprostol, which is typically taken 24 to 48 hours later to induce uterine contractions. They are intended for use up to 12 weeks into a pregnancy.
On August 5, the day after the teens were jailed, they made their first appearance before a Durham judge. Johnson was charged with assault inflicting serious bodily injury on an unborn child, assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill, and negligent child abuse inflicting serious bodily injury. Speight was accused of negligent child abuse inflicting serious bodily injury. Bond was set at $1,000, and they posted bail after the hearing.
Deberry told a gaggle of reporters in a courthouse hallway that day that she has been “on the record, over and over again” about her belief “that a woman has the right to choose and has the right to making decisions about her own body.”
On October 27, the day before the teens were scheduled to return to court for another hearing, Deberry laid out her reasons for dismissing all the charges in a memo to Barbara Lagemann, a Durham County public defender who represented Johnson, and LiBria Stephens, a private attorney who represented Speight.
“Ms. Johnson is alleged to have used mifepristone and/or misoprostol as deadly weapons,” Deberry wrote. “Both medications are commonly used in obstetrics and gynecology. The impact of both medications differs greatly depending on the dose, route, and gestational age at which they are administered.” It was not possible to determine those details from medical records and other information Johnson’s counsel provided, Deberry added.
“While it is clear that Johnson delivered the child preterm,” Deberry wrote, “it was also unclear whether the substances she ingested were the probable cause of preterm delivery.”
“Spontaneous preterm labor and delivery are not uncommon,” Deberry continued. “It is especially not uncommon in young black teens with ongoing financial and social stress, such as faced by Ms. Johnson.”
No medical information supported the allegation either parent showed “a reckless disregard for human life” after the baby was born—and in fact, Speight’s 911 call suggested the opposite, Deberry wrote.
Moreover, the baby was released to the care of Johnson’s mother—with whom both new parents live—and, according to Deberry, are allowed unsupervised visits.
Planned Parenthood’s Birdsong was surprised by the statutes cited in the charging documents, and the implication that abortion medications could be considered deadly weapons in the assault charges.
Assault on an unborn child occurs when someone assaults the mother and in the process harms the unborn child, Birdsong also noted. There’s an exemption in state law for the mother.
While Birdsong has seen an increase in abortion- and pregnancy-related criminal charges in other states, that has not been the case in North Carolina—until this summer, that is.
Two weeks before the Durham case, a 36-year-old woman was arrested in Buncombe County and charged with misdemeanor child abuse and feloniously exposing a child to a controlled substance related to fentanyl use, according to court documents. District Attorney Todd Williams, who also signed the prosecutors’ statement post-Dobbs, dropped the charges on July 27, citing similar reasoning.
But prosecutors from 23 states have initiated at least 902 cases related to pregnancies since 2022, according to Pregnancy Justice, a reproductive rights nonprofit. The majority of the charges alleged some form of child abuse, neglect, or endangerment, with most involving substance use during pregnancy, they found.
State Rep. Marcia Morey, a former Durham district court judge, said she was surprised to see the charges brought in Durham and was not surprised they were dismissed.
Law enforcement officers have discretion, Morey added. “A lot of times, if [charges are] serious or controversial, I would think that they would consult with the DA to see if they would actually prosecute it. … Usually, there’s better coordination between law enforcement and the DA.”
Even though the charges were ultimately dismissed, both advocates and legal analysts have pointed out the potential effect the felony charges could have in discouraging women from calling 911 in emergencies, or pushing them to resort to unsafe pregnancy termination methods rather than going to the doctor.
“The damage has been done,” Morey said. “This was very delicate, I think, and involving teenagers. So I think that probably goes to show there should be better communication.”
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